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INCEPTION OF THE NOVEL

A. The Manuscripts of “Uncle Robinson”

The manuscripts of “UR” and MI are kept in the Médiathèque in Nantes. Robin (234) states that the first of the two manuscripts (“the manuscript”) of “UR” contains twenty-four chapters, with almost no crossings-out or additions, except in chapters 20 to 24. “UR” (i.e. the second manuscript) has the same twenty-four chapters of approximately the same length, in the hand Verne used for final manuscripts, except that from the middle of chapter 18 (159) it is in Honorine Verne’s writing, without any crossings-out. The principal differences between the manuscript and “UR” are stylistic and in the names.¹

Parts of an early draft may have been written before the fateful meeting with Hetzel in September 1862. Given that the internal action of Part I ends on 29 December 1861, “UR” itself must have been begun in 1861 or later. Moreover the first manuscript is dated “186.,” implying that it can not have been begun before 1860. Guermonprez and Robin think it dates from 1861; Jules-Verne, about 1860, with “UR” from 1866.² But the action of a three-volume work presumably covered a few years—MI takes four—which would mean a correspondingly later date of writing. The correspondence showed that Verne was “taking notes” in September 1865 and recopying Part I in May 1870. Dumas and van Herp (31) argue that the handwriting of the manuscript is similar to that of 1870.

The cover of the manuscript reads “‘UR’ / First Part” but also contains a table of calculations in pencil, with “Hetzel” followed by “8,500” and, in the following line, “5,000,” presumably francs. According to Guermonprez (“Notes,” 46), Verne’s jottings in the manuscript record that “Honorine … had brought him 60,000 FF of dowry and 50,000 in prospects”—considerable sums, and ones that have not received attention in the biographies. Both sets of jottings again support an earlier manuscript, given that the wedding took place in 1857.

“UR” begins:

The north of the Pacific Ocean—An abandoned boat—A mother and her four children—The man at the helm—May Heaven’s will be done!—A request without a response.

The most deserted portion of the Pacific Ocean is that vast stretch of water limited by Asia and America to the west and east, and by the Aleutians and Hawaii to the north and south. Merchant vessels venture rarely on to this sea. No point for putting in is known and the currents are capricious. The ocean-going ships transporting goods from New Holland³ to West-America [sic] remain at lower latitudes; only the commerce between Japan and San Francisco follows the route of the great circles of the globe, slightly lower. Here there accordingly exists what one can call “a desert” from the fortieth to fiftieth degree of latitude north … / Do unknown islands still exist in this sea the size of Europe? Does Micronesia⁴ stretch as far as this latitude? … In this part of the globe, two natural phenomena cause the appearance of new islands: on one hand, plutonic action which can suddenly raise a piece of land above the waves. On the other, the permanent work of Infusoria⁵ slowly creating coral-based shoals, which in a few hundred thousand years will form a sixth continent in this part of the Pacific.⁶

Guermonprez (“Notes,” 38) comments that the Clifton family are not aware of their coordinates, and are generally rather apathetic. Of course they have the children to look after and fewer possessions than most desert-island characters. Nevertheless, during the same first four months the settlers of MI have rebuilt most of civilization.

When Belle dreams of “a fine grotto, with diamonds on the walls” (“UR,” 62), this is a reference not only to Journey to the Centre of the Earth but to the “salt grotto” of The Swiss Family Robinson. Many pointed comments are indeed made about the Robinsons’ easy life, such as: “[the] climate where the rigors of winter are not to be feared. Each day they find, almost without searching, the animal or vegetable they need. They possess arms, tools, powder, clothing; they have a cow, ewes, a donkey, a pig, and a chicken; their wrecked vessel abundantly provides them with wood, iron, and seeds of every species!” (“UR,” 137)⁷

Hetzel commented on the manuscript, devastatingly and at length, as follows:⁸

The beginning lacks life, it’s slow. I think that the beginning should be a dialogue interrupted by a few lines of narration from time to time … the characters … are unformed and lifeless (fo 1); begin the description—+ on 25 March 1861 a vessel was floating on the surface of the pacific [sic] which is called deserted. (fo 2); what language does he speak? (fo 3); you’ve already got a Robert in Grant? (fo 36); [Flip] has not yet shown himself to be alive, even very lively (fo 40); say it briefly (fo 68); it’s awful, my good fellow, laugh [?], and it’s not gay, this mystery of the fire. It annoys without result (fo 141); have them rub some wood! … As soon as they’ve got fire, why don’t they make tinder with clothing, a flint, his knife. Flip and the children and the other person lack improvisation, imagination, and surprises. They don’t astonish, and don’t yet interest;⁹ suppose that Flip has been to the school of Chester … and find amusing or curious things. Sixty-two pages and not an invention that the last nitwit wouldn’t have found (“UR,” 238); let them make arms: a bow, a sledgehammer, a sling and arm the children. Relate their happiness to have a house to sleep in (239); but my friend … one calculates six days by the nature and occupation of the days, and it is puerile and absolutely impossible to make believe that they don’t know after six days where they’ve got to without making them pass for cretins (239); a hedgehog doesn’t need to be knocked out … say porcupine, if not the spines won’t be any use … also it’s not good as food (240); give them a telescope lens, with the sun they can light a fire (241); have a storm set fire to the wood, the children use their ingenuity to replace the knife, they replace the blade (241); one mustn’t put them in a banal grotto. Good god imagine something else, even if you have to stick them in a tunnel, a former volcano … have them enter the grotto by water, have chance send them there, have them fall in (243); you should shove them underground, in a former volcano. Everything needs to be extraordinary, nothing needs to produce repetition (243); make twenty-five pages from these 150 … They are too slow, not one of them is alive, your characters in all your books are life itself, energy itself; here, it’s a pile of languid beings. None is alert, lively, witty. Leave all these fellows and start again with new places and facts (242).

B. The Manuscripts of The Mysterious Island

MS1 of MI contains only the untitled second part and the third part, and has no comments by Hetzel; but it contains many corrections in red in the right-hand margin. MS2, often similar to the printed text, contains Part I, headed “The Castaways from the Sky,” plus Part II, without a title. It has not been recorded to date that Part III of MS2 carries the surprising title “Cyhiet Anardill.”) (or “Eghiet Anardill.” No trace has been found of any of these names, although “Anardill” shares a root with “anarchist.” Moreover, it is strange that the title should be “Prince Dakkar” in MS1 (added in blue, whereas Verne usually used black) and then “Cyhiet Anardill.” in MS2, since Prince Dakkar is of course the final form.

Part II of MS2 begins with a list in red at the top: “Cyrus Smith / Gideon Spilett / Harbert / Pencroff / Neb. / / Lincoln Island / Granite House / Rock-Funnel [in English].” Folio 81, naming the parts of the Island (MI, I, 11), is totally crossed out and replaced by 80bis and 80ter; fo 9, by 8bis and 8ter. In MS1 the sailor is called Cracroft until the return from Tabor (II, 15), and thereafter Pencroff; but “Cracroft Pencroff” in Part I of MS2 and “Pencroff” in Parts II and III. This implies that Part I of MS2 was written before Parts II and III of MS1. Guermonprez (“Notes,” 60) says that in MS2 Verne rubbed out Hetzel’s pencil comments; and that from fo 33 onwards the publisher’s comments are in ink, with Verne crossing them carefully out but also attaching pieces of paper to cover them up, although this practice has never been mentioned by other commentators.

Many dialogues are deleted from the first chapter of MS2, which ends: “Off we go, my friends: let’s save our leader.” In MS1 the reporter is initially a stuffy and rigid Unionist officer, perhaps Smith’s adjutant, unlike the cheerful Spilett; and he is called “Captain Robur”! Robur, meaning “oak” in Late Latin (cf. “Verne” which means “alder”), is of course the hero’s name in Verne’s The Clipper of the Clouds (1886) and Master of the World (1904). In MS2 Spilett, whose earlier name is “Nol,” “Not,” or “Nat,” admits he does not know how to swim well (fo 19); and “Smyth Smith”¹⁰ (fo 10–12) has “a thick clump of beard” (fo 8bis) but no moustache, and “does not smile very often” (fo 8bis). Given that he is “lean, bony, and lanky,” he may be modeled on Lincoln (although the illustrator does not see him like that).

On fo 51 in MS2, Verne adds a variant: “Gédéon Spilett, in turn but calmly, kneeled down near Cyrus … Then he got up again, saying: / ‘I see full well that I will have to change my article.’” The reason that it is deleted again must be the poor taste of the joke that he had thought Smith dead. On fo 70 we read “Neb, on a piece of paper which he found in the pockets of his master, wrote the word ‘Come’ with his blood and attached it to the collar of the dog.” This sentence was perhaps removed because Neb cannot easily draw his own blood.

In MS1 a couple of jaguars reluctantly retreat from the settlers. In MS2 Hetzel adds a cryptic comment that the Island has not always been uninhabited (Guermonprez, “Notes,” 60). In the inventory of items found in the chest is included “a history of British domination in India.”¹¹ On fo 34, Verne crosses out a long section of Hetzel’s comments, but does not seem to have changed the text as a result.

The portrait of the settlers’ qualities (I, 13) is added in the margin of fo 90, presumably under Hetzel’s pressure. “Divine Providence” (fo 95) is replaced by “the Author of all things” (I, 4). The publisher comments that Verne has not left enough time for the settlers to complete their various tasks; Verne accordingly replaces “The third week in December” (MS2) with “The first week in January” (II, 8). Hetzel also suggests that the settlers entrust a message to a bottle or a bird, but Verne pointedly replies: “Gideon Spilett had already thought several times … of throwing into the sea a message enclosed in a bottle … But how could they seriously hope that pigeons or bottles could cross … 1200 miles …? It was pure folly.” (II, 11)

When Jup is captured, Hetzel says “why don’t you make him an ape tamed by Nemo … Very comical … things could follow on from this, like for example during their first meal … / Cyrus is flabbergasted, goes pale, and does not say another word for the rest of the meal.”

Hetzel suggests “Balloon Harbor” to replace Verne’s “Secret Harbor”; and where Verne had written in English “North Mandible Cape” and “South Mandible Cape,” he scrawls “Hell, these names are incapable of striking French ears. If they mean anything, why not translate them?” (fo 158). Guermonprez (“Notes,” 17 and 73) states that most of the place names of Lincoln Island started off with French names but have (pseudo-)English names throughout MS2: the French names published must have been re-inserted at proof stage.¹²

Guermonprez (“Notes,” 60–61) reports that, after the words “The envelope, except for the tear, was in good condition, and only its lower portion was ripped.” (fo 52—II, 5), Hetzel adds:

Nevertheless, Cyrus Smith appeared to be plunged in a deep meditation contemplating a gap in the envelope. A piece was missing which had not [been] torn away and which seemed to have been cut out by someone. The material was cleanly cut, as if a tailor’s scissors had been at work. / “It’s unbelievable,” he exclaimed, using his eyes to direct the reporter’s attention to this strange detail.

Once again Verne crosses out the addition and leaves his text unaltered, presumably since there is no reason for any sane person to perform such an action. The incident therefore illuminates the Verne-Hetzel relationship, implying that many of Nemo’s most pointless actions may have been suggested by Hetzel. One central scene in Twenty Thousand Leagues is very similar, and again is never explained: “The engineers then carried out an inspection of the Scotia, which was in dry dock. They couldn’t believe their eyes. Two and a half meters below the water-line appeared a neat hole in the form of an isosceles triangle.” (I, 1) Without going into Freudian interpretations, the neat cutting by Nemo in both novels parallels Hetzel’s cutting to a remarkable degree.

Porcq (165) quotes an important scene included only in MS1, involving Smith’s hypnotism of Ayrton:

“My friend,” he said in a firmer voice, “look at me, I want you to.”

It seemed that the eyes of the poor creature slowly fixed on him.

“Listen to me! I want you to!” the engineer then said.

The savage was apparently listening. He seemed to be under the influence of Cyrus Smith as a hypnotized person is in the power of his hypnotizer.

Everyone was breathing heavily.

“Understand me,” Cyrus Smith said at last.

He held the two hands of the savage. He was squeezing them with force. It looked as though he was transfusing his soul and his intelligence into him, and the other looked at him now, he listened to him, he wanted to understand him. His lips moved, they began to stutter …

“Speak, speak!” exclaimed Cyrus Smith.

Several moments passed. The savage’s lips were little by little re-finding that faculty of articulating words to which they were no longer accustomed, and finally these words escaped:

“Tabor, Tabor!”

His first words were for that deserted island [where] his reason had disappeared. (II, 16)

The reason this powerful and dramatic scene was cut might be the echo of Christ’s healing but also the sexual undertones between the two men, including the transfer of fluid implied by the “transfusing.”

In MS2, a personal description of Dakkar in Stendhalian terms appears, and we may again very much regret its deletion:

Eghiet Anardill, who was intelligent … / had traveled to all the courts of Europe. His birth and fortune made him sought after, but the temptations of the world, so pretentious and at the same time so empty, never had any attraction for him. Young at that time and handsome, with all the charm adorning Byron’s immortal characters, he remained serious and gloomy, devoured by an implacable hatred riveted to his heart. / Eghiet Anardill hated. He hated the only country where he had never wished to set foot, the only people whose overtures he refused. He hated Britain.¹³ (quoted by Martin, 148)

In a series of articles, Dumas has emphasized the variants of the ending visible in the manuscripts of MI, although presenting only disappointingly brief extracts, and omitting to indicate whether he is citing MS1 or MS2:

A single souvenir will remain to you of the Prince Dakkar whose history you now know. A pearl is there, behind that pane. This pearl, the biggest in the world, I left to grow for twenty years in the Tridacna which produced it, at the end of a submarine grotto in the Ocean. It is worth more than ten million. It is yours. (fo 145)

In the published version the pearl is replaced by a coffer of diamonds, an inappropriate gift from a libertarian disdaining material values and one that removes an elegant link with Twenty Thousand Leagues (II, 3).

Nemo’s death was originally different: “Finally, a little after midnight, he made a last movement and, not without difficulty, succeeded in crossing his arms on his breast, as if he wanted to die in this attitude.” The following paragraph is identical apart from the published “Then, murmuring these words: ‘God and country!’ he quietly expired.” (III, 17) being originally “Then, murmuring this word: ‘Independence!’ he quietly expired.” (fo 149)

In the manuscript we read “Cyrus Smith then leaned over and closed the eyes of Prince Dakkar, that great patriot who was Captain Nemo.” In other words, the inappropriate religious sentiments, including “May God receive his soul!” must be Hetzel’s rather than Verne’s. The moralistic and judgmental speech of Cyrus Smith and the idea of prayer are also absent from the manuscript:

“Do you think me a criminal?” / Cyrus Smith took the captain’s hand, and, on his request, he replied only in these words: / “God will judge you, Prince Dakkar. As for us, we are under an obligation to Captain Nemo, and those under an obligation do not judge their benefactor!” (fo 143)

The closing scene is also different:

A fortnight later, the settlers disembarked in America; Ayrton, their courageous and honest companion, wished to stay with them. And never would they forget that Lincoln Island, on which they had arrived poor and naked, which their knowledge and intelligence of all things had civilized, which, transformed by them, had satisfied their needs for four years, and of which there now remained only a piece of granite, the isolated resting-place of Captain Nemo, buried with it at the bottom of the seas! (fo 175)

This sober passage marks the end of the novel.

If there is a thread running though Hetzel’s ideas, it is that he keeps wishing to change Nemo’s behavior in strange ways—and thus shows that he has no comprehension of him at all. Verne’s view of the repeated attacks over several years on his most cherished character must, one imagines, have been comparable to Cyrus Smith’s flabbergasted reaction.

C. Publication of The Mysterious Island

The first page-proofs of Part I were ready on 26 September 1873. L’Ile mystérieuse was published in installments in the MER from no. 217 of Vol. 19 (1 January 1874) to no. 264 of Vol. 22 (15 December 1875). In no. 217, the subtitle “The Castaways from the Sky” was omitted and the text was preceded by Hetzel’s “A Few Words to the Readers of MI” (reproduced on pp. xlvii–xlviii). In volume form the first part was published on 10 or 12 September 1874, the second on 12 April 1875, and the third on 28 October 1875. As was usual, the single large in-octavo volume appeared later, on 22 November 1875, “illustrated with 154 drawings by Férat.”

The serial publication in the MER contains one rather ugly engraving that has never been reprinted, of a large waterfall descending to the sea from a rock above the level of the surrounding cliffs (I, 22, p. 134). It also includes a phrase missing from the book editions, “and you fought against the present,” after the word “past” in Smith’s (Hetzel-imposed) judgment of Nemo: “Captain, your error was in believing that you could bring back the past” (II, 16). The chapter headings are also sometimes shorter: for instance “The Torn Envelope—Nothing but the Sea in Sight” (I, 1) is omitted. All the captions to the illustrations are missing. Since the grouping of the chapters influences the structure of the novel, with each serial ending persuading the reader to purchase the next issue, it is interesting to note that most chapters appear singly, except for the following pairs: Part I chs 2 and 3, 9 and 10, 16 and 17, 18 and 19, 20 and 21, Part II chs 4 and 5, 9 and 10, 17 and 18, 19 and 20, and Part III chs 3 and 4. More generally, the list of contributors to the MER in 1874–75 is a regular Vernian roll-call, including P.-J. Stahl, of course, but also Ernest Legouvé, Margollé and Zurcher, Eugène Muller, E. Reclus, and H. Sainte-Claire Deville. It also contains a story by a M. Maréchal called “Le Secret d’Elie,” so close to the title of Verne’s Part III, “Le Secret de l’île” (“The Secret of the Island”) as to have to be its origin.

The word “rrhyomes” in the first grand-octavo edition of MI (II, 7, p. 270) is a misprint for “rhizomes.” The words “… was found to be 10°. Consequently, the total angular distance between the pole and the horizon …” (“était de dix degrés. Dès lors la distance angulaire totale entre le pôle et l’horizon”—I, 14) were absent from the serial and first editions, but appear in subsequent editions.

NOTES

1. The crewman Bob Gordon (a Scottish name) in “UR” was initially Bob Lander (Richard Lander (1804–34) was a famous explorer of Africa) or Bob Lanver: the name Bob is possibly drawn from Cooper’s Bob (see above) and may give rise to Bob in P.-J. Stahl (Hetzel), Histoire de la famille Chester et de deux petits orphelins (1873—Gallica) and Bob Harvey, the pirate in MI.

2. Jean Guermonprez, “Une Œuvre inconnue de Jules Verne,” Livres de France, 6.5 (1955): 9–10 (9); Christian Robin, ed., Un Editeur et son siècle (1988), 132–35, 331–60 (333); Jules-Verne, 201.

3. Australia. [JV]

4. Archipelagoes situated in the northwest of the Pacific. [JV]

5. Microscopic unicellular animals. [JV]

6. The manuscript contains similar information, but in different form (Charles-Noël Martin, “L’Oncle Robinson et L’Ile mystérieuse d’après leurs manuscrits,” BSJV 60: 145–51 (148)):

A little frequented portion of the Pacific Ocean is that which extends over the northern hemisphere between on the one hand America and Asia, and on the other Hawaii and the Aleutian Islands. Here there exists a vast stretch of sea frequented by few merchant vessels; no point for putting in is known; in addition it is not the route of the ocean-going ships that carry produce from New Holland to west America [sic], and commerce is rather infrequent between Japan and California.

7. Robin (“Postface,” 232) considers that there may be an influence from Rousseau’s Rêveries or Confessions, with references to natural philosophy (195), “fine views” of nature (71), “secret consolations” of “suffering souls” (71), active pedagogy, the open air developing body and brain, and the need to take from nature only what is needed (159), together with lessons in geography, mineralogy, zoology, and botany, with a huge variety of plants and trees. The children learn to recognize the plants used to make common household items, again like Rousseau. However Rousseau was highly influenced by Robinson Crusoe, so Verne may simply be echoing Defoe directly.

8. Christian Robin, “Extraits,” in Christian Robin, ed., Un Editeur et son siècle, 343–59 (343). Complementary information appears in Hetzel’s letter of 21 July 1870.

9. Claudine Sainlot, Christian Robin, and Jacques Davy, “Notes,” in L’Oncle Robinson, 235–45 (238). Hetzel’s following reference to “Chester” is presumably encouraging Verne to imitate his own Histoire de la famille Chester et de deux petits orphelins (1873)—an irony when we consider the posterity of the two authors.

10. By an interesting parallel indicating the source of the name, “Smith” without further identification in Twenty Thousand Leagues (II, 7) means Rear Admiral William Henry Smyth, author of The Mediterranean (1854).

11. “1 [une] histoire de la domination anglaise aux Indes”: while this may be a title, the book can not be identified, unless it is simply Valbezen’s.

12. In the following list, each locality has four forms: the initial French name, the English name used by Verne in MS2, the final French name, and the name used in this translation:

• creek Yowa [sic], Red creek, Creek-Rouge, Red Creek

• Lac Ontario, Heart lake, lac Grant, Lake Grant

• Bois Caroline du Nord, Bois d’Arkansas, bois du Jacamar, Jacamar Woods

• Forêts du far West, — , Forêts du Far-West, Forests of the Far West

• Baie de l’union, Union Bay, Baie de l’Union, Union Bay

• Baie Washington, Washington Bay, Baie Washington, Washington Bay

• Mount Franklin, Franklin-Mount, Mont Franklin, Mount Franklin

• — , Serpentine Peninsula, presqu’île Serpentine, Serpentine Peninsula

• Promontoire Massachusetts, — , promontoire du Reptile (Reptile-end), Reptile End

• cap New Jersey (previously Halifax), — , cap Mandibule (Mandible-cape), Mandible Cape

• Cap Vineyard, — , Cap de la Griffe (Claw-cape)/le cap Griffe, Cape Claw

• Rivière Delaware, Mercy River, la Mercy, the Mercy

• Ilot Grant, — , îlot du Salut (Safety-island), Safety Island

• — , East Land, Plateau de grande-vue, Grand View Plateau

• Marais Kentucky, Ducks Fenn, Marais des tadornes, Tadorn Marsh

• Rock House, Rock-funnel, Les cheminées, the Chimneys.

Massachusetts, New Jersey, and “Vineyard” are presumably included in the initial list as the homes of Smith, Harbert, and Pencroff. The following manuscript names are absent from the book: canal du Maine, dunes d’Albany, Cap Gédéon, and baie Vermont.

13. From the manuscripts and correspondence of Twenty Thousand Leagues, we know that Nemo’s hatred was originally that of a Polish count against the Russians who had destroyed his country and raped his daughters, but Hetzel censored this for political reasons.